1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to developing devices, image forming apparatuses, image forming systems, developing methods, and toner bearing members.
2. Related Art
Image forming apparatuses such as laser beam printers are already well known. Such an image forming apparatus includes, for example, a photoconductor, which is an example of an image bearing member that bears latent images, and a developing device provided with a toner bearing roller, which is an example of a toner bearing member that bears toner and develops latent images borne on the photoconductor using the toner. And upon an image signal or the like arriving from an external device such as a computer, the image forming apparatus positions the developing device at a developing position where the toner bearing roller opposes the photoconductor, and forms a toner image on the photoconductor by developing the latent image borne on the photoconductor with the toner bearing roller. Then, the image forming apparatus transfers the toner image to a medium and finally the image is formed on the medium.
In this regard, sometimes a toner having a slow electrical-charge buildup (toner that takes time for its charging amount to reach a saturated charge amount) is used as the toner in this image forming apparatus. And a phenomenon called development memory can occur due to the slowness of the electrical-charge buildup in the case where the latent image is to be developed using this toner. And occurrences of this phenomenon are a cause of deterioration of image quality in images formed by the image forming apparatus.
It should be noted that JP-A-2006-259384 and JP-A-2003-57940 are examples of related technology.